Teach For America Turns 25

In the past quarter-century, Wendy Kopp’s idea for putting new college graduates to work in high-need public schools has grown from her undergraduate thesis project at Princeton into a $300 million organization responsible for recruiting, training, and supporting thousands of new teachers every year. Along the way, Teach For America has generated criticism even as it’s become a mainstay in many of the nation’s larger school districts.

Education Week’s Stephen Sawchuk spoke with me about his remarkable deep dive into TFA-Land. You can catch the full episode of EWA Radio here. We talked about the group’s efforts to maintain their national brand even while giving regional offices more autonomy, and how some individual teachers are adding a social justice element to their work with students. We also discussed some of the high-profile alumni of TFA and how their subsequent careers are influencing school “reform” debates. (Worth noting: on Thursday, Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson — a former TFA corps member — announced he’s running for mayor of Baltimore.)

While Sawchuk said he doesn’t expect his project to change anyone’s long-held beliefs about TFA, he pointed out thatthe organization has evolved into an innovative incubator for exploring what works — and what still needs to change — when it comes to training and supporting successful teachers.

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Emily Richmond is the public editor of the Education Writers Association. She coordinates programming and training opportunities for members and provides individualized reporting and writing help to journalists. She also hosts the EWA Radio podcast, and authors EWA’s “The Educated Reporter” blog.

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In a New Haven middle school, a Teach For America teacher is facing a dilemma that is likely familiar to many of her “corps” colleagues — should she continue building on her early record of success reaching students, or give up an often-frustrating job when her two-year commitment ends in June?

A new Institute of Education Sciences study conducted by Mathematica found that middle and high school math teachers from Teach For America and the TNTP Teaching Fellows programs were as effective as, and in some cases more effective than, other math teachers in the same schools. It’s a note-worthy finding because TFA teachers are often criticized for not having enough teaching experience.